Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence, gore, sex, and language in so-so '90s homage.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 17+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Fear Street Part One: 1994
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 16 parent reviews
Based on 112 kid reviews
Kids say the film features a mix of LGBTQ+ representation and graphic violence, including shocking scenes like a character's head being put through a bread slicer, which left a strong impression on many viewers. While it has elements that make it entertaining for teens, such as good character portrayals and engaging storylines, the excessive gore and some sexual content have led to mixed opinions about its appropriateness for younger audiences, with most agreeing that maturity and personal tolerance for horror are key factors in determining its suitability.
- graphic violence
- LGBTQ+ representation
- teen audience appeal
- maturity dependent
- excessive gore
- mixed reviews
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
In FEAR STREET PART ONE: 1994, another serial killing spree has taken place at a mall in Shadyside, a down-on-its-luck town with a history of serial killings that goes back for decades. While teen Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) spends his free time on an internet chatroom centered on the conspiracies and rumors swirling around these murders, his older sister Deena (Kiana Madeira) is brooding in her room over her breakup with Sam (Olivia Scott Welch), a cheerleader who has moved to the affluent next-door town of Sunnyvale, where she has started dating football hero Peter. At school, Josh crushes on tough girl Kate, a cheerleader who deals drugs with wild card Simon. After an attempt at a vigil in Sunnyvale for these latest murder victims by a killer the media has called the "Skull Mask Killer," a fight breaks out, provoked by Peter and his snobby jock friends. After an altercation between Peter and his friends, who pursue the Shadyside kids in their school bus, Peter's car swerves off the road and crashes into the woods, with Sam in the passenger seat. Injured while rolling out of the car, Sam touches the ground, and starts hearing and seeing ghostly visions. The next night, Deena and her friends are pursued by what appears to be someone pretending to be the "Skull Mask Killer," but they soon learn that it's something far more sinister, as the other serial killers from previous decades begin showing up. After rescuing Sam, they soon begin to understand that Sam disturbed the grave of Sarah Fier, a witch who was killed in the 17th century and is rumored to be the reason for so many serial killings in Shadyside. Convinced that the undead murderers that Sarah sent are only after Sam, these six teens must find a way to destroy the murderers without making Sam a sacrifice, and figure out a way to stop Sarah Fier once and for all, for the good of themselves and their cursed hometown.
Is It Any Good?
This is a teen slasher homage and parody that tries way too hard. Fear Street Part One: 1994 is a movie that really wants you to know that it's set during the 1990s. With its mixtapes and AOL chatrooms and so much music from the likes of Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie, and Bush, the movie is drowning in '90s sauce within the first ten minutes, and it quickly grows tiresome, either as parody or as an attempt to capture what it was like in the mid-90s. While the movie seems to be trying to reference the tropes and conventions of teen slasher movies from this decade, it doesn't take long for it to feel like little more than a copy of Stranger Things, with its cartoonish exaggeration of period relevant pop culture and the age-old rivalries between assorted high school cliques.
Ironically enough, the very exaggeration that the movie seems to be going for is its undoing. The excessive profanity quickly grows tiresome and comes across as uninspired and unoriginal. The self awareness in what's being parodied loses any humor it may have had within the first half hour. The gratuitous sex and violence end up being all part of the exhausting pastiche of the blurred line between irony and tribute, of parody and homage. One has to hope that the next two movies in the series will be better.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about movies and TV shows set in the 1990s, such as Fear Street Part One: 1994. How does the movie try to bring the 1990s to life? What are some of the ways in which movies and TV shows set in a previous time try to realistically convey the style of that time?
Was the violence necessary to the story? Why or why not? Do horror movies need lots of violence to be scary? Why or why not?
How does this movie seem to both celebrate and parody the horror movies of the 1990s?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : July 2, 2021
- Cast : Kiana Madeira , Benjamin Flores Jr. , Olivia Scott Welch
- Director : Leigh Janiak
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Multiracial Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Book Characters , Family Stories ( Siblings ) , Friendship , School ( High School )
- Run time : 107 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : Strong bloody violence, drug content, language and some sexual content.
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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